Nothing Alice
by Topaznik-Citrine
Summary: So Natsume Hyuuga thought that nothing meant anything. We've taken the liberty to go to any means necessary to show him otherwise. This is where our story begins. MxN. R&R!
1. He Thinks Nothing

**A/N: This is an AU and does not follow the original storyline, the characters may be OOC but no OC's will be introduced. Most probably.**

**Based off of the novel "Nothing" by Janne Teller.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own 'Nothing' or 'Gakuen Alice'.**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o**

One day Natsume Hyuuga stood up in the middle of class, gathered his things, and left without a word.

Just like that.

In the middle of a lecture about some long-ago war none of us really cared about, that no one was listening to in 4th period on a hot, dull afternoon. It was so random that no one even thought to stop him or even ask what he was doing. For a moment Narumi-sensei looked like he wanted to protest, but whatever he was going to say left his mouth in a deflated 'whoosh' and he slumped in his chair, giving up before he tried. Poor Narumi.

Hyuuga gave us something to ponder and whisper about the rest of the day. We were one of the smallest classes, a mixture of 21 students. Now 20, with Hyuuga seemingly gone like that. Hyuuga was smart, but I wouldn't say he was the smartest. That was probably my best friend Hotaru Imai. He was strong, but I still thought Tsubaka was the strongest, being one of the two 11th graders in this particular class, making him the oldest boy. Hyuuga was handsome, you could say, but his friend Ruka was too, and so were some of the other boys. I bickered with him from time to time, but no more than I bickered with others. He had a dangerous ability fire Alice, but besides this there wasn't absolutely anything specifically interesting about him.

Until today.

Today combined boredom spun rumors that spoke of insanity and used words like "snapped". Others said that maybe he just really had to use the bathroom. Others said he must have had a genius epiphany and had to act upon it at once.

Ruka Nogi decided to put the rumors to rest when he ventured out to find Natsume. He didn't have to venture very far, a little birdie had told him his best friend could be found on a cherry blossom tree on the path to the school. Literally. Ruka Nogi had the animal pheromone Alice.

"I'm not interested in anything anymore. In any of you. All of this.. everything.. means nothing." Natsume announced in a bored tone to his lifelong friend when he'd asked. These words were repeated and spread like the fire of his Alice, shifting and morphing words by person like in the game 'Telephone', until it was the hot topic that everyone was talking about. But the real deal was in 4th period the following day, because no one cared like the class it happened in. While we knew that the rest of the school would eventually bore of this information, we would only take it further as we spoke nonstop about Hyuuga's new revelation, unknowingly imprinting it into our brains, like a seed waiting to sprout.

So Natsume Hyuuga thought everything meant nothing.

"..We have to prove him wrong."

And this is how our story began.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o**

**Hullo there. **

**I could either extend this into some fluffy one-shot, or a longer, chapter story that will truly take on the novel 'Nothing', with it's Gakuen Alice twists. **

**I warn you- if the latter is picked, the story will get gory. (Don't blame me, blame Janne Teller and all her genius authoress glory.)**

**R&R or else this goes nowhere at all.**

**~Yasu**


	2. Casting The First Stone

**A/N: I got... one review. **

**From a very kind Ms "Hamendeggrock". (Please correct me if I've misspelled your name.**

**It made me sad. :'( ← see?**

**But then I decided.. I can survive off one review. Screw all the rest.**

**Here's the second chapter, for my one loyal reader. :)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice or "Nothing". **

**P.S: I am re-reading all of Gakuen Alice because last time I stopped around when they go to rescue Aoi, so please no spoilers beyond that point.**

**By the way, I just read the part where Persona says his name is 'Serio'.**

**I laughed.**

**Why?**

**'Serio' is Spanish for "Serious man". **

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

"Come down already!"

"There's no point."

It went like this back and forth ever since the whole class gathered around the Cherry Blossom tree that evening, and after 45 minutes of yelling and arguing (at him and among ourselves) tempers began running short.

"This is getting ridiculous!" Permy AKA Sumire Shouda snarled, (Who, by the way, I think you should know was obsessed with Hyuuga and Nogi), and I could see her finally making up her mind as she rubbed her temples and activated her canine/feline Alice. She jumped the tree and began climbing in such a way that I had to try to stifle my laughter.. then again, I didn't try very hard.

I stopped laughing of course when I heard Permy screech like a banshee when a ring of fire burst suddenly from where she was about to climb, retracting her now burned fingers so fast that she almost fell. Kitsuneme looked for a moment like he wanted to try his floating fate with the pyromaniac before deciding that he wouldn't look so good with all the hair on his head singed off.

Natsume leaned forward on his branch to get a better look at us. "You know why there is no point?" he drawled out lazily.

"Oh, yes, please grace us with your wisdom we've so long waited for." Misaki-Sempai called sarcastically, rolling her eyes.

"Because there is no point to anything. Especially as an Alice. Normal humans live a boring life of a 100-some years maximum, wherein they learn, work, marry, reproduce, divorce, die, and repeat the process day after day. Between all this, the average human really only gets 9 years to live. Alices don't even have to make the extra effort to find out what to do with their lives, since having these powers means we get used for whatever power we were born with, used and used until they suck us dry, and then we die too, and for what? For nothing. So why not really do nothing for the rest of your time, like sit up in a tree?"

With that, he leaned back, looking content with his explanation. None of us had anything to say to this. I had never everheard Hyuuga speak that much. At least not all at once. I didn't realize that I never really even had a good idea of what his voice sounded like until just now. It wasn't bad. For a 13-year-old.

"You're wrong." Pretty-eyed Kaname Sonoh spoke though the growing silence of our group. Kaname-Sempai would think him wrong, since it was rare to see poor Kaname at all since he was always sick, literally giving his life to his toys, as was his Alice. Kaname would think that his time was precious and meaningful, since he had so little of it.

But Kaname-Sempai's words roused us and we all began to chorus, "Yeah, you're wrong!" again and again, even though none of us had a fancy, long-winded explanation as to why.

Natsume shook his head. "Hey, Polka Dots," he addressed me by an embarrassing nickname about an even more embarrassing memory of a panties-related incident that he'd never let me live down.

"Mikan. I am Mikan!" I yelled. He ignored me, duh.

"-You have the nullification Alice."

I waited for him to continue. "What's your point?" I said, even if I didn't want to know his point.

"My point is that your nullification Alice only contains value in the vicinity of the school. You know. Wherever there are Alices. Once you graduate and are back in the world out there, your Alice has no value whatsoever. You might as well not be an Alice. And Hoshio, aren't you losing your Alice? You and Polka Dots will be living like normal humans in no time." Another slightly long explanation.

My face burned and a strange rage grew in the pit of my stomach. I looked to Hoshio's masked face and could feel the dumbfounded fury was mutual at Hyuuga's words. Before I knew what I was doing, I picked up a rock and flung it as high into the tree a I could.

"Shut up!" I screamed, the rock hitting a branch three below Hyuuga. Suddenly everyone was picking up stones and flinging them up at Hyuuga along with their insults and cries of "Just shut up!"

He dodged them gracefully. "You can't handle the truth!" He yelled triumphantly.

Finally, one rock hit home. With a grunt he toppled backwards into bushier parts of the tree we couldn't see, no doubt holding on for dear life somewhere in there. Surprisingly, we all turned to find that the stone was cast by none other than Ruka Nogi, of all people.

"Natsume.. just come down." There was little guilt in his tone, drowned out by determination.

He was answered with silence. We heard a muffled 'thump' of feet landing on the ground, followed by the shuffling crunch of running on leaves.

We all breathed a sigh of relief, and with some well-deserved pats on the back, began to head back to our rooms.

We'd won.

0o0o0o0o0o0

So why didn't it feel like we had?

0o0o0o0o0o0

Because we didn't.

I found this out while lying on the floor of my two-star room, when there was a knock on my window. It was Kitsuneme and Hotaru.

"Natsume's back in the tree, and I think we have another plan to prove him wrong!" Kitsuneme announced excitedly, like it was a brilliant idea to provoke Hyuuga.

"Meet us at the shed of Mr. Bear's cabin in the Northern Woods at 1800 hours." Hotaru commanded in monotone. I was surprised to see her there. Not only because she's usually so neutral about everything, but..

"...I live on the second floor." Was all I could say. "I mean, I understand how Kitsuneme's here, but I thought you said your flying duck machine needed repairing because it only got a couple feet off the ground."

With a flip of her beautiful long black hair, Hotaru pointed below her. I leaned out my window to see a struggling Ruka on a flying duck machine, supporting Hotaru's weight on his shoulders.

"Oh.. uhm, hi, Ruka-Pyon!.." I chirped awkwardly, and he seemed unable to reply much than a grunt of acknowledgment.

Hotaru took out a whip and snapped it almost in Ruka's face, yelling "Mush!" like he was a dog pulling a sled, and they sped away.

I sighed and began to count 12 backwards from 1800 while rummaging for something to wear. Hyuuga was becoming troublesome.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

**I know, I know, you didn't read wrong- Hotaru, with long hair? But bear with me, I've got my reasons.**

**I finally figured that I don't write for the reviews, but for the sake of writing, when all my 3-day-vacation was spent thinking of what to write next for this chapter. :)**

**(Don't get me wrong, constructive feedback is still very much necessary.)**

**So get to it. **

**P.S: I won't be writing the next 6 days or so because I'm going as a volunteer on a Medical Mission to Mindo, Ecuador, so I apologize for the lack of updates.. my one reviewer. **

**~Yasu**


	3. Anticlimactic Revelations

**A/N: Dear anonymous reviewer, thank you!**

**I told myself I would wait for two more reviews... all it would take was two more and I'd continue.**

**But yours was enough for two. :)**

**And yes, eventually NatsumexMikan moments will happen! Just with patience.. You think that's why I haven't been getting reviews? Or is my story really just THAT crappy?**

**A parody is taking a story and fusing it with the plot of another story (something like that) which is what I'm doing, making a Gakuen Alice/Nothing parody.**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own either. **

**Enjoy, my now two known readers! Hahah... /that was just sad./**

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

I shrugged on my jacket and stepped out into the breezy, sun-setting afternoon that would surely be a chilly night by the time I got back. The path I took would always cross that damned tree as much as I tried to avoid it, so that of course he would spot me when I carefully crawled by, leaves crunching beneath my hands and knees as much as I shushed them. There was no hope anyways, Natsume had been trained by the best and often in the midst of battle that had taught him to be alert and aware. Always sleeping with one eye open.

"What the hell are you doing, Polka?" There was slight amusement in his voice. He was rarely amused at anything.

"Nothing!" I replied sarcastically.

"Good. That's how it should be." He said with enough sarcasm to challenge mine. I opened my mouth to spew some insult or another, but was distracted by a glimpse of something, that was perhaps nothing, as he turned his head. He noticed my hesitation.

"Have you become marginally more intelligent in the last 3 seconds and finally decided to shut your mouth?" He then yawned to display his disinterest in the conversation.

"We'll get you out of that tree Hyuuga, we have a plan!" This seemed to interest him a little, and he raised a short black brow at me.

"Oh really? I don't know why you all care enough." He scoffed. I didn't have an answer. Maybe it was because we didn't want him to be right, didn't want to believe nothing mattered and that we were wasting our time here in the school. That we'd rather be wasting our time somewhere else, doing something else.

We won't be tempted by Natsume!

I turned and ran, feeling his eyes bore into my back, as if even his gaze emitted physical heat.

0o0o0o0o0

At the shed we killed time talking while we waited for everyone to get there, and when everyone was there, all of us were still killing time talking. We ran circles around the reason we came here until finally..

"So how do we do it?" Nobara-chan questioned in an almost whisper that rang loud in our ears (ironically 'breaking the ice'). Except for Wakako who was a bit hard of hearing and yelled "What?" in the silence that followed. We all knew what Nobara-chan was talking about.

"We could wait 'till winter. It'll be cold and he'll come down." Was the first of the hopeless suggestions to follow, provided by Nonoko. I could see Ruka shaking his head in my peripheral vision as Tsubaki-Sempai spoke up.

"Natsume's Alice is fire. You really think that will bother him?" He smiled in order not to offend her, but still shot down her idea.

"Besides, for that we could use Nobara's Alice, and he would still easily melt anything she threw at him." Misaki-Sempai backed up his argument. Nobara-chan's eyes flickered and I could tell she was fighting the urge to flinch at her words. Not many people liked poor Nobara-chan for her Alice, although I knew Misaki had no prejudice and meant no wrong by it, I still shuffled closer and placed a hand on Nobara's shoulder.

"You boys could just force him down. You'll just have to fight him." I suggested, trying to inch the sudden spotlight away from Nobara-chan. A lot of the guys paled at this. They shared uneasy glances and soon most were shaking their heads in vigorous disapproval, even if it made them look weak in front of the girls.

"Not a good idea.." Mochi muttered. He was one of the boys who liked to act toughest, but it was understood that Natsume was a dangerous ability, he was the _only _dangerous ability in elementary, and now one of he rare few in junior high. Have I mentioned his Alice is Pyrokinesis?

"We can pray." Kitsuneme contributed timidly. We discovered he was religious last year when he had a "near death experience" where his Alice faltered and he felt what it was like to fall for the first time in a long time. Apparently he prayed and he floated once more. Even if it was Mochi who kept him airborne with his telekinesis.

Mochi was now yelling at him to "Just shut up!" and trying to punch him before someone held him back. Yuu and Kaname didn't seem to think it was _such _a terrible idea.

"We could complain to a teacher like Jinno-Sensei." Anna committed social suicide at that moment.

"What? The teachers? Jinno?" Someone gasped.

"Jinno would rather fry us individually to a crisp than listen to us or care that Hyuuga's in a tree, it's not _his _problem to deal with." Sumire scoffed.

"Then how about the principal?" Anna finally set her death sentence.

"Th- the principal?" Mochi sputtered after an awkward silence before his words echoed around the room in whispers and exclamations of disbelief, and we had to stop him from going off on Anna. Koko stepped in between them as Anna squealed and embraced Nonoko as if it would hide her. Meanwhile Ruka's face had gone from normal, to paper white, to sickly green so fast that you could tell he was absolutely horrified at the prospect of telling _them _about Natsume.

"Natsume is wearing a an anti-mind reading device!" Koko said calmly with the same carefree smile that's permanently fixed on his face. "This alone tells me he's hiding something in those thoughts of his, and I think he's just playing mind games with us."

There was quiet.

"...Everyone go home. We'll meet again and settle this tomorrow, same time, same place." Ruka was pinching the bridge of his nose and sitting on a cardboard box of old Christmas lights, and didn't notice the looks on our faces when he said 'home'. We shrugged it off and dispersed without complaint.

I couldn't face Hyuuga now.

I walked the path that would always lead me past his tree, having made absolutely no progress since I walked by before the meeting. I would just run past as fast as I could, and I would have all night and morning to come up with a better excuse than "I was being chased by bees".

I rounded a corner and could see it now. As I neared it, I tried not to look at the distinctly shadowy figure up in the murky darkness in the tree, and crouched tensely as if I was a lion about to pounce. And I ran.

I got about 5 strides until I tripped on a step I didn't see and face-planted into the stone floor.

The pain burning through my right cheek bone paled in comparison to the devastation as I watched my dignity sprout wings and fly. Fly far, far away from me.

And whatever was left of it disintegrated at what could have passed as laughter from the heavens above, as if the gods themselves were getting kick out of my misery.

"Plums?" I heard him call. My face went impossibly red with added embarrassment and freshly forming bruise as I shot up like a loose plank whose end was stepped on, covering my exposed panties and almost tugging my skirt _too _down.

"Shut up!" Oh, great come back, Mikan. I glared up at his figure and I just knew he was smirking.

Natsume Hyuuga was no god in the sky. He was just a kid up in a tree.

"I appreciate your impaired judgment of running in the dark. It makes for quality entertainment." He said in a somewhat more normal tone of voice instead of calling down, and since everything was so quiet I could hear him perfectly. Save for the crickets.

"So, have you found the antidote to my apparent insanity?" His sarcasm and intellectual way of speaking were pissing me off like no one ever could before.

"Yes!" I lied.

"You're not looking too enlightened down there. What was the name of that card game? Bullshit?" He called me on my lie. I wished he didn't have to be so witty about it. I wanted to climb up there and push him off his tree. Everything he said bothered me. It bothered me too much. Like..

"Why did you say people only live 9 years?" I changed the subject. He hesitated, but couldn't help but take the bait.

"From the moment you're born, you begin to die. Even if you live to be 80, which us Alices rarely live too long, you'd have spent 1/3 of your life sleeping. You've already spent at least 6-7 years of your life being a little kid- or in your case, all 13-" (I so_ have_ grown up) "- and then you spend at least 18 years taking care of your own kids. Even if your kid is an Alice and ends up getting shipped off here-" (I winced) "You'd still have spent X amount of years working, for the organizations and other Alice-related things in our case, the time spent doing chores, the time spent doing things that are pointless or that you don't want to do or are a waste... Well, in the end when you calculate it, you got 9 years to truly live. So I'm going to start living my 9 now." He finished.

But I couldn't hear it in his tone. I couldn't hear the satisfaction of 9 years to yourself, of 9 years of life. This wasn't it. At this particular moment, I didn't know what 'it' was exactly.. but I would find out.

"No moment in life is spent wasted.." I muttered, and I never knew if he heard because immediately after I yelled, "We're going to get you down from that tree, Hyuuga! You'll see what we'll prove to you and you'll eat your words!" I got up and sprinted away, his eyes boring into my back like they do, and I think I wasn't the only one who noticed that my words were not laced with aggressiveness or unreasonable anger, but with a certain determination that matched Nogi's.

Right now, there was a lot I couldn't understand.

Except that right now, I really needed an ice pack and an Advil.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

**I'm sorry it took me _SO_** **long to update this time! I truly am! I'll be good. Except that now school is starting in 4 days and I'll probably be super busy. But I love this story.. even if the rest of the archive doesn't. -.-' (this is my _baby, _screw you guys.)**

**And if you are reading, please throw me a line? I have to know there are others out there and that I'm not alone..? (Like the world has ended and I'm a survivor. Pft.)**

**So for now, thank you my two readers. R&R.**

**~Yasu**


	4. Friends, Family and Weather Bets

**A/N: I feel bad for not updating so I'm starting this chap ASAP. **

**Disclaimer: Same old, same old.**

**Thank you very much Sissicon123! that made me feel better. :)**

**Asl joa ecjwl? Your reviews had me crying tears of joy and my heart doing a little happy-dance in my chest and blushing! What is this, love? **

**Hahah, no really, you cannot imagine how much I appreciate your support. You deserve a cookie. **

**And oh my goodness, thank you for correcting me one the principal thing! . **

**Yes, I do live in America. XD**

**And yeah, sometimes I take really long reading something because I have to read the same sentence OVER and OVER again to process it. And I'm flattered you picked out your favorite parts. XD thank you for the advice. Hahah..**

**P.S: Thanks to Amai Tarashii Karite! I just keep adding to this author's note this whole school week I've worked on this chapter, and I'm rambling too, so it's okay! Haha.. I really do appreciate it, and I'll try to make the chapters longer. :)**

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

The following morning a few people asked what happened to my face. I said I fell. That's all they needed to know. That was the first new thing that morning.

The second was our sudden awareness of the door.

When Hyuuga left the classroom, he never completely closed the door behind him. As if he was leaving an open invitation for us to forget about everything and join him up in his tree. And no one ever completely closed the door after that. Like they couldn't. Like there was a force there that Hyuuga left behind to pollute our minds with. The space that was left in the marginally open door, matched the one left in our hearts, in our minds.

"It looks like the door is smiling." Koko narrated someone's thoughts. That's exactly what it was.

"What is wrong with you children, pay attention!" Jinno-Sensei waved his pointing stick in a way that made most of us duck. Lightning Alice. Eek.

We directed our spacing-out stare from the door to the board.

The smiling door would not distract us! No way, no how!

0o0o0o0o0o0

We passed Natsume's tree once class was dismissed and we flocked out of the classrooms. He was tossing plums and catching them in his cool, nonchalant way, all the while training his eyes on mine, making sure I catch the sly, knowing look in them.

"Thank you for the wonderful idea, plums..." He scoffed and it sounded something like a chuckle.

The other girls looked at me.

"What the heck is he talking about?" Permy questioned me in that crude way of hers, and all the others were looking at me too now, including Hotaru.

"No... I have no idea." I said, looking at each of them directly and trying to look honest. He threw plums down as if this was his way of calling me a liar. The plums rocketed down like missiles and we squealed and ran out of there fast.

0o0o0o0o0

The sky was getting prematurely dark from rain clouds moving in, their target: The campus. Any other group of reasonably minded people would have chosen to reschedule the meeting.

Nope, not us. Of course not us. Never us. Our reaction was to move things _faster. _As soon as we got to our dorms, we changed our clothes and ran like bats out of hell to the unused cabin shed.

"What, are the hounds of hell at your tail?" His comparison sounded like the one in my mind and for a horrifying second I thought I was beginning to think like him. But then I realized I could never know what was going through his head. Then, a thought not resembling any of Hyuuga's occurred to me.

"Are you staying up there in this weather?" I planted my hands on my hips in disapproval.

He raised a brow. "Are you developing maternal instincts?" I really do think that I was.

I shrugged it off. "You're going to get sick if it rains!" I stated what should have been obvious.

"Wanna bet?" For Hyuuga's standards, that was quite an immature statement. Then again, maybe he _was_ immature but just covered it up with pretty words and advanced vocabulary, and that brooding, silent anti-social attitude.

"I _will _bet!" Maybe I was every bit as immature. "5 Rabbits!"

"You're on. In fact, I'll raise you 3 Rabbits that you get caught in the rain coming back through here." He stooped down to my level, or I to his, point being we were at the same level.

".._You're _on." I continued sprinting twice as fast to the shed.

We were lounging around procrastinating. This was not good. Mr. Bear was glaring at me from the garden outside his cabin where he was trying to get his ornaments inside before it rained. Which confused me endlessly.

"I'm getting sick of Hyuuga up in his tree!" Said Mochi, who was one a devout Hyuuga fan, on Natsume's team all the way. Maybe he missed being Hyuuga's personal bodyguard.

"Perhaps it's time to do this the hard way." Luna Koizumi suggested in a tone that we wouldn't have heard hadn't it been so quiet, save for the wind (which I noted was picking up). She was brushing some invisible dust of the hem of her skirt and pretended to be completely unaware that she'd even just said that.

I didn't like her.

In fact, I disliked her more than I'd originally disliked Sumire.

"He can't sit on a tree if there's no tree to sit on." Hotaru said. I believe she meant absolutely no harm. It was logic that she threw out to drown out Luna's comment, yet somehow, it ended up contributing to it. I believe, by the look in her eyes with what happened next, that she meant no harm.

"Down with the tree!" Someone yelled. It was a battle cry of a rebellion, and you didn't have to be Koko to know what they were thinking.

"Whether he's in it or not!" Another yelled.

"We'll throw his tree down, and him along with it!"

"We'll throw stones as a warning!"

Now I caught Youichi's eyes. Youichi loved Natsume like a big brother, because he practically raised him in Youichi's young 7 years of life. (Note, he was the only child of such a young age in our class because he had a very powerful dangerous ability, like Natsume. And like Natsume, this made him a prodigy.) And this did not make Youichi happy. There was panic that matched Ruka's, that matched the ones who did not agree with this, and that I think, matched mine.

"That is _not _the answer!" Ruka interrupted. "Natsume is not a bad person! No, he doesn't deserve to get bulldozed or- or stoned!" He said, even if it was a tad hypocritical on his part, his rock being the one that hit. "Now everyone shut up and listen to a non-idiotic plan!"

He was bluffing. He seemed to think for a moment before turning big, gray, pleading eyes on Hotaru.

She stared stoically and seemingly uninterestedly back at him, but I could hear the gears turning in her head. With a trademark flip of her hair, she turned to the crowd and played along.

"Listen up because I don't repeat myself. We are going to prove to him that there is meaning. We have to disprove his theory once and for all, and he will lose his own game." There was a pause, and before anyone could ask how, she said-

"We will make a pile of meaning."

None of us really knew what that meant, but I could hear thunder now and was very worried for the money I didn't have.

The next couple minutes was spent switching between focusing on Hotaru explaining that we all had things that had meaning, and wind outside was getting strong, and that if we got the things that meant something to us, and that last thunder was alarmingly loud, that we could combine these things, my goodness the lightning was becoming frequent, that we could create a pile of meaning and store it right here.

Half of me wanted to ask questions, the other half wanted to run back to my room as fast as possible.

"Alright, so everyone gets the plan?" I demanded, hands on my hips, trying to look leader-like and aggressive so that no one would ask questions. I caught Yura raising her hand and interrupted before anyone could see.

"Ok! Time to return to our rooms!" I said hastily. Some looked at me suspiciously. "Because.. you know.. the storm, don't want to get sick, you know.." I mumbled sheepishly.

"She has a point. We'll get a lock for the shed and begin first thing tomorrow." Tsubasa thankfully agreed. Tomorrow was a weekend, a free day where we had the choice to visit Central Town.

I hurried through 'See you tomorrow's and bolted outside to see that a drizzle had already begun. I stared up at the sky, willing the rain drops to be sucked back up. I glanced to my left and saw Youchi hugging a grumpy Mr. Bear goodbye with Kaname nearby. Then I turned before anything else could distract me and ran back that same old path.

GAME OVER.

I could practically see those words in neon letters above my head as the drizzling turned into pouring, signaling my loss of the bet. I held on to hope to hope that he could still get sick. I was crossing my fingers. I was nearing the tree now, and dreaded whatever boasting I was about to face.

Someone beat me there. I stopped dead in my tracks and jumped behind a tree, the bushes scratching at my skin. I took a peek and saw a figure standing underneath the tree. I squinted, and saw it was a very small figure, arms crossed. They were yelling up at Natsume. A girl. A pang of jealousy that I couldn't understand and left me questioning my sanity hit suddenly for the split second before I realized it was his sister, Aoi. A sweet, 11-year-old girl that I would say was not related to Hyuuga had they not shared a last name, and looked very much alike.

"I demand you come just come the heck down already, Natsume!" She yelled at octaves only a prepubescent girl could manage. Ah, those were the days.

"You are my little sister. Not my mother. If anything, you should be respecting me. Go to your room." He said and I noticed the almost paternal tone in his voice. It seemed they both acted like each others parents frequently. In a place like this, you had to. I had seen Mr. Hyuuga at the school on one occasion. I have never seen nor heard about Mrs. Hyuuga.

"This is stupid and pointless Onii-chan! I don't care what you're trying to prove-" Whatever she was going to say was cut off by him.

"Aoi, go to your room before you get sick and useless." Of course, Hyuuga was all tough love on the exterior, but I have a feeling I wasn't the only one sensing the overprotective worry behind the statement, since her tone softened as well. She brought up her hand and lit a fire.

"No I won't. I'm not cold. But you-"

"AOI, go to your room." He commanded in a tone that left no room for disobedience. I almost flinched. Aoi's shoulders slumped, defeated. She put out the fire, put up her hood, and dug her fists on her pocket. Her gaze left her brother and I ducked. There was a pause.

"Stay safe, Onii-san." She sighed. I could hear her footsteps slapping away on the wet stone. I peeked again. I noted the change in honorific, and for a moment, felt like a secret detective on her secret case.

Natsume was slumped against the tree, finally averting his gaze from the ground where she was, and sighed, appearing to be in deep thought. I wrote all this down on my imaginary notepad, and carefully stepped closer.

Of course, being me, my foot slipped making a small noise on the wet leaves and mud. I hugged the tree and watched Natsume's hand twitch the same nanosecond that his head turned a tiny fraction in my direction. I held my breath.

"..You can come out now."

So I did. I came closer. I kicked a rock on the ground. I stood in the rain, waiting.

"..Why did you send her away?" I asked.

"You had to come out eventually." A practiced liar.

"You _just _noticed my presence now." I said, voice sure. He met my gaze unblinkingly. I couldn't look past the crimson into anything inside him.

"You didn't want her to get sick, obviously, because you care about her. Because she's your sister." I was challenging him. Staring him directly in the eye from a distance, from beneath my eyelashes trying to shield my eyes from the rain.

"Your point?" He caved and was first to look away. Yes. I win that round.

"My point is that if you care about her, why don't you come down?" I triumphantly concluded.

Something that passed as a bitter laugh escaped his mouth. "She wants me to come down, all of period 4 wants me to come down, Ruka wants-"

"And for Ruka you could at the very least do it!" I snapped at that. "If it wasn't for Ruka, you'd probably be turned in by now to the teachers, or even the principal!" I continued yelling. "If it wasn't for Ruka, you'd be- be- _stoned _to death or pummeled into the ground along with your dumb tree!" I blurted out furiously, kicking the tree and almost slipping. His eyes were large as I met them once more. He did not respond. Immediately, that is.

"...Tell Ruka I'm sorry." He said quietly.

"Why would I?" I said with more harshly than I'd meant to, fueled by my slow receding anger.

"Because you're a good person and I'm not." I wasn't expecting that. His words made me blush and I hated myself for it, made me fiddle with my skirt and my eyes fly downcast to stare at a growing puddle. I lost round two.

I'm a good person, and he isn't.. And what exactly did he know about me? Nothing!

..What did I know about him...?

"..Nothing.."

"What was that?" He called over the rain that was picking up.

"Nothing!" I called back up, and smiled.

"I'll tell him. But not because I'm a good person. Because I don't think you're a bad one." I called with the brightest smile I could manage, before turning and trying to run my fastest without slipping.

I actually left the great Natsume Hyuuga speechless.

I stood at Ruka's door absolutely drenched. I was wetting his carpet. I kept my promise.

He muttered something about how if Natsume really cared he'd come down from the stupid tree, but he smiled and I knew he forgave him for being... well, Hyuuga.

Natsume Hyuuga was not a bad guy, he just played the part of one, and I was going to get to know more than nothing about him.

**0o0o0o0o0o0**

**(I KNOW! Aoi is not in the academy, but hey, I'm writing this on my own terms.)**

**And there's that! I'm taking Asl Joa Ecwl's advice for now, but this story can't stay under the Romance/Comedy genre for long, because trust me.. very soon, in a few chapters, it is going to take a drastically dark turn. But don't worry- the tone won't change or anything, it's just going to take on 'Nothing's very philosophically... uhm. Disturbing plot. Hahah.. I'll remember to NOT drop the humor and romance in the story, I'll even double it to even things out more or less. XD**

**P.P.S: I'll try to put up a new chapter every weekend or so, please accept my apologies 'till then. Hahaha.. (I only say these things because I have only recently gotten into the habit of updates, I once literally did not update for 6 months. A whole year once. At that point, it isn't considered updating, it's abandoning and rediscovering. Never doing that again.)**

**P.P.P.S: It is a miracle I got this chapter up on time at all. First week of school, and 6 out of 7 classes gives me very long homework to do for the weekend. 6 OUT OF 7. Also, I think there is now more Author's note than actual story, officially.**

**So I'll see you next weekend! 'till then, te amo todos!**

**~Yasu**


	5. The Ticket and The Cat Nap

**A/N: First and foremost I would like to apologize for not updating last weekend. Serious things came up and got complicated. That, and I am currently buried in my grave of school work.**

**Please accept my apology, my few but dear readers. :)**

**I'll try to get you two chapters to make up for it.**

**Now, on with last week's author's note..**

**A/N: Natsume has the smile of an angel. God I wish I could draw that boy... I finally met Luna and Hoshino (that's the actual name!) and a WHOLE bunch of people! I was so disappointed to find the manga isn't even finished yet, but so happy at the same time..!**

**Dear Hi, yes, I love your name very much, I might marry it and call it Susan. XD And awww, you are too sweet! I'm so happy to know I have such a loyal reader. :') And.. well... Let me at least tell you, the actual novel does not end very happily, and I've been debating it.. I've decided I'm going to make alternative endings to the fic. Yes, one will be (very) happy, hahaha. But don't worry. We've got a long way to go 'till the end. ;) Also, yes, 'Nothing' is _very _'Lord Of The Flies'! :D What can I say, the kids are crazy. Hehehe. **

**P.S: About Ruka's eyes- In the manga they're blue, but in the anime they're gray, so I got confuzzled. :(**

**P.P.S: Thank you to Tamashii Karite :) **

**A late review is WAY better than no review! Hahah, thank you! I forgot about Neji.. XD**

**0o0o0o0o0**

The next morning I purposely strolled by Natsume's tree, if only to brag about keeping my promise. And my end of the bargain. I had the money set aside, in case he remembered our bet. I hoped he wouldn't.

"Ruka forgives you." I called semi-sweetly. He ignored me.

"Natsume!" I yelled. He turned his head.

There it was again. That day, I'd been distracted by something when he'd turned his head. And now, in the daylight, I squinted my eyes..

He whipped his head around back toward my direction.

"How's the operation going, plums?" He questioned quickly, in a low voice. I knew what he was doing, but it was too late. I'd seen it. A blackish bruise on the side of his neck. I assumed that he must have gotten it falling from the tree. Or something. But, why hide it..?

"Natsume, what is that?" I motioned the bruise. He stared. But he never answered. The wrong questions he avoids, the right questions he ignores. Was I picking up a pattern? Was this going to become a riddle, our personal game? I shook my head. I wasn't even making sense.

"Hmm. Bye!" I saluted and he opened his mouth to say something, but I ran. I heard him stumble and had a miniature heart attack but didn't stop, hearing him shuffle back into place. I could feel his Fahrenheit eyes on my back until I turned the corner.

It was silly to me, but I didn't want my daily dosage of Hyuuga, not on my day off. It was getting to be unhealthy. I'd learn how he got injured when the time came.

I wanted to know now.

0o0o0o0

"Mikan!"

Narumi-Sensei caught me red-handed before I could enter the woods that would take me to Mr. Bears new and already abandoned shed.

"Narumi!" He smiled, but it seemed like a strange, hesitant action. I used to call him dad, before I found out that I'd had a father. Not that I didn't know I had a biological father, I already knew that it took a man and a woman to reproduce, and I was well educated of the process, even if it still made me blush. I knew I had a father, but a year ago I saw a picture of him. Then it was different. He had a face.

"Mikan.. I'd like to speak to you." He said sweetly. My heart raced. Yes, Narumi was handsome and had the Pheromone Alice but this was not why, I see him like a (second) dad, and I had my nullification. But because he also somehow was always very perceptive about things going on within the academy.

"Mikan, I have to speak to you.." He said sweetly, stopping in front of me. I looked up at him and tensed.

He waited for me to say something. I didn't.  
"About your class..?"

I gave no response again.

"Mikan.." He sighed. He knelled down to look me directly in the eye, even if now he had to look slightly up. "I know you know something. Your class has been acting strange lately. You know which one. Ever since Natsume left." His tone was soft and understanding and tempting. I tried to somehow lock my jaw in place. There was a buzzing that I ignored because it was probably just my mental defense mechanism.

"I.. n-no.." I stuttered. I couldn't _lie _to Narumi. I bit my lip. The buzzing was getting louder, and he squinted his eyes and tilted his head. I guess he heard it too. He shrugged and directed his attention back to me.

He opened his mouth, and all that got out was "Mi-" before my back was slammed harshly by a small hand that grabbed a fistful of shirt and suddenly I was flying. Somewhat. My screech was drowned out by the buzz that I now realized was a motor engine. This thought registered that the cavalry had come as I watched Narumi's stunned face get farther and farther away. I turned to have a wave of flowing, black, unrestrained hair obscure my vision and glimpses of my violet-eyed savior and her crazy motor scooter that she invented herself.

I carefully shifted as much as I could as she sped so that I could hug her and she wouldn't be able to do anything about it.

"The padded seats come with a butt-Baka gun." Or maybe she could. I reluctantly ended my embrace.

"Then let me braid your hair as thanks!" I suggested cheerfully. She scowled but wouldn't say no. She secretly loved it when I braided her hair.

"You know, if we had speed limits on school grounds, this would be very illegal..!" I warned as I looked around for something to hold onto, scared of falling off. She rolled her eyes. We kept going until we stopped at a bench. We sat down and she reached for something in her pouch, I watched as she pulled out..

"Ah! No way! Holowan!" I squealed and dove for it. She pulled away and motioned with her hand, the message clear: _'Cough it up'. _

I pouted and gave her the 3 rabbits I owed Natsume. Holowan meant more to me at this moment. Besides, if he didn't mention it this morning, he'd surely forgotten, right?

On the 4th piece of intertwined hairs of braid and 7th Holowan, Koko and Sumire came running toward us.

"There you are- Megane and Tsubasa are back with the lock! We're starting!" Koko had said when Sumire opened her mouth. She glared at him.

"I told you my mind is a RESTRICTED area!" She yelled and hit him on the arm. He laughed and it only got her angrier.

Hotaru and I looked at each other. That was fast. I felt my stomach sink at the rest of a day I though I'd spend, gone.

This had become our responsibility in our minds, one we carried out well as we sacrificed the rest of the day trudging back to our rooms, changing and grabbing anything we might need, and heading right back to the forest.

I was going to avoid Natsume. Somehow. It turns out I didn't have to.

Something extraordinary was happening.

I stood there in awe, mesmerized.

Natsume was napping. Napping like a cat lying on a porch in the sun. I suppose it gets boring quite quickly during 9 years of relaxation. He looked so peaceful.

So young.

So nice.

So...

un-Natsume Hyuuga.

I was torn between wanting to pinch his cheeks and running back to get him a blanket, or throwing something to wake him for fun. I would never do any of the above, though. They would almost all end in certain death.

I squinted my eyes and used my hand to shield them from the glare of afternoon sun through the trees. I stepped closer. He was in the shade and I could see he was pale. I stepped closer. His breathing was shallow. I stepped closer.

I hit the tree and felt a little like a mentally challenged person. I probably should have realized by the time I was on my tip-toes and my neck had to extend so far that I started leaning that way that I was getting too close. I looked up and noticed that from this angle all I saw was his hand dangling in midair. I stepped back a little and focused on his flushed face. I scrunched up my eyebrows and pursed my mouth. I needed a closer look.. I had to make sure.. but..

I wedged my foot comfortably into a small wedge of cracked trunk, telling me to do it. He was asleep, it whispered. No one was around, it said. I looked up at an uneven part of trunk protruding not too far above that was just in reach if I jumped and could later serve as a foothold and would give me easy access to the first branch, which would facilitate the rest of the climb up.

Without another thought, I launched myself upwards and grabbed the uneven base to pull myself up and safely lead my other foot to another foothold. I put all my weight onto that one, ignoring the feel of my ponytail being tugged by something it must have gotten caught in and looked back up to look for something else to hold onto-

And found myself looking straight into startlingly red eyes. I screamed and fell back, and the eyes only widened. I fell on my lower back and somehow ended up spreadeagled on the ground. He stared, arm outstretched, clutching the scrunchie of my pigtail in his hand, He was the one that tugged. Despite the pain, the first thing I did was feel for my left pigtail. My hair was sprawled on the ground beside me.

I sat up, hair tumbling down past my shoulder. Still, he stared. Almost no one had ever seen me with my hair down. I felt exposed.

I scrambled to my feet, and thrust my hand toward him.

"Give it back." I said angrily. I glared, he stares. Surprisingly, he drops the scrunchie in my outstretched palm. The unblinking stare/glare contest goes on for a moment more.

Then I turn and run before words are exchanged once more, like I do.

0o0o0o0o0

I retied my hair as I trudged into the shed where most of us were already gathered. I stood there beside Hotaru and she sensed my unreasonable anger, I could tell by the stolen glances. She didn't ask. I wished she would.

The first thing in the meeting was to choose the combination for a lock. Numbers were thrown into the air to fall into a suggestion pile, until one person came up with a wonderful idea.

"1127."

November 27th. Natsume's birthday. We all agreed.

The next thing was just as slow progressing.

"Ok... who's first?"

Silence.

Everyone looked around like they were expecting someone else to step forward and do something, an example for the rest to follow.

Mochiage was the first to step forward. He took something small from his back pocket, and dropped it in front of him, letting the small rectangular paper float onto the dirt. It was a very old movie ticket. Proof that he had once lived out there. That life existed beyond our school. We all looked upon it like a monument, and suddenly, our lives were tied to it. It was so much more than a movie ticket. To us, it represented our compromise, officially established. It was the beginning of our pile.

Yuu then extracted a pair of broken glasses that he kept with him, that his friend who was no longer in the school (A case like Hoshino's) had cracked when he sat down on them in the 2nd grade. After that, we were all moving about, looking for something to donate, to sacrifice. Some even began running in and out and back and forth from the shed to other places to look for things. Yura dropped in a slightly damaged hair clip that her older boyfriend had given her from a set of various similar clips. Wakako and Sumire mournfully put down a picture of them when they were little.

I watched close as Ruka approached and let a collar of a deceased animal from the barn fall into the pile. Tsubaka and Misaki seemed to have been discussing something in hushed tones while this happened. They must have decided something, because then Tsubasa came up and carefully put down a small wooden box on the pile. From both of them it seemed, although I couldn't fathom what it meant to them as he stepped back and they held hands, looking at it like a child. I'd only seen them hold hands once before.

I didn't really have much to offer. I stood there with Hotaru watching as one by one they followed it up with: Kaname, a stuffed animal's button; Koko, a faded blue book; Kitsuneme, a game board with missing pieces and that looked soggy; and Anna and Nonoko together with a spoon that Anna had used to mix the batter for her first cake here without knowing that Nonoko had used it to mix her first chemical solution here, the end result being disaster and plenty of food poisoning.

The rest of us, (the ones that did not contribute), watched like viewers at a precession until we all stepped back to take a good look at our pile, after 3 hours.

Something was missing.

You could practically taste it in the air. The dissatisfied look on our faces said it all. It was getting late and we didn't know what to do.

"...Tomorrow." Was the beautiful word that allowed us to relax until we had to deal with this once again. Tired sighs of relief floated through the room and we all prepared to go our separate ways.

I didn't try to hide from Natsume. Fists buried in my pocket, I walked up to that tree without fear. He looked exhausted, looking down at me.

"What were you going to tell me this morning, before I left?" My voice boomed clearly.

His heavy-lidded eyes made their way lazily to me.

"..You lost the bet." His voice rasped.

My hunch was right. It really did happen.

"You're sick." I felt a lot less glad about this than I thought I would. He didn't deny this, instead shrugging like it was no big deal and it made me mad.

"Alright then, 2 Rabbits seems fair." He drawled.

"It isn't about the money!" I ground my teeth. He was unbelievable.

"What is it about then?" He asked, sounding the tiniest bit annoyed.

"You are actually staying up there, sick?" I yelled. If he said yes, I swear I would..

He nodded.

"Argh, you idiot!" I let out a frustrated scream and slapped the tree as if I could physically transmit the hit to him.

"There is just no way! I mean, I can't- How can you, she doesn't- what about if he, and you- You are just so-!" I yelled nonsense like that in a wavering voice for 2 minutes while he looked at me like I should be in the psychological patient ward.

"2 Rabbits." Was all he said after my tantrum. He only knew how to fuel fires. What else would I expect from a pyromaniac, making me feel like I would suffer from a spontaneous combustion into flames from pure rage. I took the remaining money out of my pocket and threw it up at him. Coins scattered all over the ground.

He never does anything but stare, does he. Its all in his eyes, the way he observed me like this was a strange, intriguing thing. I breathed. I breathed, and waited. Waited to calm down, and start picking up coins.

"Why are you angry?" He questioned.

"Because you are actually willing to put your health in danger just for the sake of your stupid game." My voice had steadied.

"Who said this was a game?" He said grimly. I heard sadness, somewhere in there. And somewhere inside me, I reacted. Somewhere inside me was now absolutely dying to know what this was about. Somewhere inside me had not surfaced yet.

I counted the coins and looked up, puzzled. I tried standing on my toes, but there was no way I could hand it to him.

"Won't you come down to get your stupid money?" I felt defeated.

"Why don't you come up?" He retorted without skipping a beat.

I couldn't respond. I couldn't tell if he was even being serious. He seemed very serious. My eyes flew to a piece of broken green plastic hiding behind the leaves on the floor.

"You should let your hair down. It would look nice." He finished me off. My face was warming fast now. Still, I chose not to respond. I threw the coins back down on the ground and began running to my dorm.

It was a blur, I fumbled with the lock, burst through the door, rummaged through the trunk of extra sheets, grabbed a blanket and was running right back down the corridors and courtyard until I was right back to his tree.

I left the blanket on the ground, with the coins. We shared a long glance. I hoped that through this, he saw everything I wanted to say without me saying it. I could see different things in his eyes now, none of which I could completely identify.

The last thing I hoped to have said with a look was "Goodnight" before I left.

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

**(P.S: I just re-read this chapter right now and I realized how absolutely HORRIBLE it came out. I am so sorry, I was probably halfway in a coma writng this. I promise that I will re-write this chapter and fix it up as soon as I can.)**

**A/N: All I could think about for 3 weeks was updating this story. I'm so sorry I've gotten so caught up in everything, but it seems I'm finally done with this chapter. I'll try extra hard getting the next one up soon.**

**I apologize if I forgot to thank any reviewer or reader out there, I appreciate all of you!**

**I was going to say more, but my mind is gone right now. I am so tired.**

**~Yasu**


	6. Sacrifices, Set, Start

**A/N: So.. I lost this chapter of the story about 4 times, and then my computer crashed and was unable to connect to internet for about a year. None of this is an excuse for not updating, now and the months preceding the faulty files and crash. A true writer finds a way. My sincerest apology.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice, or Nothing.**

**0o0o0o0o0o0o0**

I'd already been awake since 5:15 in the morning by the time any sun began crawling on my floor to light up my surroundings. I don't know how much longer I lay there half conscious, lost in half-comprehensible thought before there was a knock at my door that for a second I thought I'd hallucinated.

It got louder. I rolled over.

It continued. I stuffed my head into a pillow casing.

"Mikan, if you don't open this door right now I will knock it down and you will pay the expenses and be forced to wait a week before they put up a new one, with nothing but a thin tarp between you and whoever may pass by at any hour day or night." I recognized Hotaru's oh-so-cheery disposition, her sweet morning greetings dragging me violently out of bed across the jagged wood floors and onto my door. I slapped the handle until it opened and collapsed at her feet.

"Good morning." I think I said. She grabbed me by my collar and threw me back into my room.

"Change. I'm going to show you something."

I was too tired to care or even register this as I slipped on clothes like a zombie. I don't know what I put on or whether it was appropriate to be seen publicly in, but it didn't matter as I crawled back to the door and used all my strength to clutch the doorknob. The door slammed open in my face. I thanked the heavens it wasn't the same side of my face as the bruise.

"You left the door open." I think she said as she grabbed me and the surrounding world became flashes of halls, scooter, bursting into sunlight, the sudden breeze (the weather was getting colder), forest- and we were running, up and down, down, downhill. The ground went from gravel to grass to piles of orange and brown and yellow leaves. Sunlight thinned out only to break through the roof of trees above. It was surreal. There was a noise, a rushing, almost static-like noise, getting stronger as we got closer. After what seemed like hours of half-floating, half-stumbling down the endless path behind Hotaru, listening to the powerful and mysterious sound, we broke through a wall of bushes suddenly into a clearing.

It was a river. Only a few feet in width, that three and a half of me could lie down to form a bridge to the other side. Crystallized in time here, deep and dark and sparkling, the whole area bathed in bright orange sunlight.

"This was the work of an Alice." Hotaru stated, eyes trained on the marvelous masterpiece. Of course it was. It vibrated in the atmosphere and hummed in the healthy, strong current of the river. I took a deep breath of fresh, clean air and laughed. I dipped my hands in the water and threw it in the air to watch the droplets fall the same way I did into a pile of leaves. Twigs got in my hair, but I didn't mind.

"Come on, let's go. We can't have anyone wondering where we are." She said in what was her version of disappointment. I was content to have discovered this, grateful to Hotaru for sharing this intimate sanctuary with me, and promised myself I'd return. The whole way trudging back upward, I tried to imagine the one who created this river. I created my own imaginary boy in my head, granting him the features and characteristics I'd picture him to have. He'd be an upperclassman, with sandy, auburn-brown hair and blue eyes. He'd be tall, and calm, and nice, with a very kind smile.

We made it back and she informed me of the meeting we were to have soon. We parted, and I passed by my room to change. The mirror didn't have anything kind to say about how I got up this morning or the activities that followed. My shirt was backwards. And inside-out. Brushed my hair, brushed my teeth, washed my face, changed my clothes. Before I bolted out the door again, I caught a glimpse of grandpa's letters. I usually liked taking them with me, carrying a piece of him wherever I went, so I slipped the small stack of creamy-yellowing envelopes in my pocket, folded into a thick, neat square, and headed out.  
It was time to pass Natsume's tree. I was upset to see the blanket and coins still at the base of the tree, but as I got closer I could see the blanket was not exactly as I'd left it, but rumpled and folded wrong. A smile grew on my face.

"Made good use of what I left you?" I looked up. He had his back to me, laying on his side on the branch.

"Good. But you forgot to take the money." Still no response.

"That's fine. You don't have to say anything." Maybe he was napping again. But I knew that wasn't true. I don't know how I knew. Intuition, maybe.

"Don't you worry your pretty little head off, Hyuuga. We're on to something."

Once his head finally began to turn slightly in my direction is when I bounced off along the usual path. I thought about my imaginary boy with the water Alice, creating the river. I thought, maybe, he'd be the opposite of Natsume.

"No!" Koko yelled, clutching the little dark brown, leather bound booklet tightly in his arms against his chest. We didn't understand why, until Mochi stood from the wooden crate where he'd been sitting and staring at Koko, and sprang up towards him.

"It's valuable to you! It has to go in the pile!" He yelled. Our eyes flashed back at the booklet. I'm almost sure everyone else also realized at that moment that the booklet contained records of all of Koko's favorite thoughts. There could have been a piece of each and every one of us in there for all we knew. For that, we were biased against poor Koko. So we insisted. It had meaning. He refused passionately, looking sadder than I'd ever seen him before. Come to think of it, I'd never before seen him sad. He'd looked saddest once he finally laid it carefully down on the pile.

Mochi, unfortunately, chose to "bark up the wrong tree", for then Koko pointed a vengeful finger at him and boomed: "The locket. Cough it up."

Mochi's face went from smug to confused to furiously shocked in a matter of seconds. "I- I don't know what you're talking about," he lied. Badly. Looking from face to face and slowly turning red, he shook his head. "I... I don't!" it seemed he only knew to say things in one tone of voice.

We all stared. Silent. Expectant.

A bead of sweat began to form above his brow, and he broke. His hand flew to clutch his chest as if he'd received a blow, but instead his fingers curled through the cloth and around a pendant we couldn't see. He backed up quickly and bared his teeth at us. "No! I won't give it to any of you!"

Kitsuneme apporached him, extending a gentle hand toward him. "C'mon Mo-"

His hand was smacked away loudly as Mochi cut him off, yelling "Get away from me!"

It was odd seeing everyone so out of character today. Mochiage was not usually the hysterical type. But I suppose when something you care about is about to be taken away from you, you'll go to extremes to protect it.

"Come on, Mochi, we all have to contribute to the pile with the things that hold most meaning." The attempt at reasoning flowed out of my mouth nonchalantly, too caught up in my thoughts to realize I'd even said anything.

I should have kept my mouth shut.

Everyone joined in with different levels of coaxing and threatening, until finally, surrounded, he realized he had very few options. His trembling fists dropped down in defeat. He gave a hateful look at Yuu, who came forward take the locket from his vein-popping neck. He lunged forward once quickly just to make poor Yuu yelp and scatter back, now having retrieved the necklace. He scampered like a baby deer over to the pile, dropping it on top. It opened with the impact, revealing a picture of a woman who must have been Mochi's mother, or something. Some of us squirmed uncomfortably. But the pile was beginning to take on true shape. This was what was missing. Sacrifice.

I was the next victim to learn the meaning of the word. It was already too late by the time I turned my attention from the silver glinting locket and to my side, where Permy's eyes too were glinting- with malice and realization, trained on my pocket. I barely had time to gasp and look down at the envelope's corner peeking out before Permy was jumping from excitement, pointing again and again at what I was trying desperately to hide.

"Her letters! Mikan has her grandpa's letters!" She squealed like a pig and my mouth became a straight line. "She has to give them up." She looked so proud of herself. I suddenly wished I had Hyuuga's Alice. I would burned that stupid perm clean off her scalp.

I turned my gaze to the rest. All eyes were on me now. "...Let's be reasonable, people." I laughed a little too hard. Permy scoffed and rolled her eyes. I clenched my jaw. I would burn her eyebrows off as well.

"Now... these are just some stupid papers. They don't have any real meaning.. not like a locket, or diary.." My hand tightened around my precious stack. Ruka looked at me with pity. Hotaru didn't look at me at all.

"...Mikan-chan.." Tsubasa painstakingly muttered. My feigned smile faltered. I twitched it back into place.

"..It's getting late. How about we just all go home and sleep on it? And then if you all still think that a couple of letters really mean that much, I bring them back here. You have my word." I lifted my palm to demonstrate my sincerity. Like hell they had my word. I crossed the fingers holding on tightly to my treasure. Oops, lost the letters. Somewhere safe.

"..That's not fair, Koko and Mochi had to give up there things!" Someone piped up.

"Yeah, and besides, you yourself said that we all have to contribute!" Someone else joined. Permy smiled triumphantly. My palms broke into a sweat similar to Mochi's earlier and I now understood.

Like I said, I should have kept my mouth shut.

My eyes darted to the entrance. Could I make a run for it? Koko read my thoughts and stepped in the way. He was still bitter. I bit my lip. I considered throwing a tantrum, throwing myself on the floor and screaming and crying so loud they would see I'm too pathetic and leave me alone. Maybe I could gain their sympathy. After all, this was all that I had of my grandpa and _oh, _wouldn't you all let me keep this little piece of home?

Some of them crossed their arms and huffed with impatience, and I immediately knew they weren't gonna have it. My head dipped down low to hide the tears forming as I decided I would at least keep my dignity. I stepped forward bravely and tried not to sniffle too loudly as I pulled the letters out. I studied the wilted corners and the printed words on the outside, wishing I had time to open them and read them one last time. I watched them fall on top of the brown booklet, beside the open locket, and everything was finally set in motion. We were on the "right" track.

Misaki put her hands on my shoulders that were shaking with silent sobs, and shot Tsubasa a look. He quickly spoke up:

"Alright, let's call it a day.. Come on, we're done here. Everyone back to the dorms. We'll resume on Monday after class." People began to disperse. Misaki gave my shoulders a squeeze and turned to leave with the rest. I felt Hotaru come up beside me.

"I'll give you a ride back." She offered. I shook my head. I wanted to walk back alone. Also, I was a little angry. She didn't say anything to defend me. I knew it was unreasonable, because if she had said something, she would have lost credibility. It was her plan after all. She knew that the more the things meant, the more her plan would work., and my letters were a goldmine of sentiment. But I still wanted to be alone. She took the hint, and gave a brief nod before mounting her scooter and speeding off. I was one of the last to depart, and only let myself cry audibly once I was in the privacy of the forest.

When I reached Natsume's tree, I was still sobbing. My vision was clouded with a constant stream of tears, my judgment clouded by all my resenting anger at Permy.

Natsume was sitting straight up in his branch, and I could tell his eyes were trained on me, even if all I saw was a blur up in a tree.

"M... P-Plums?" He stumbled through the words, sounding startled at my appearance. It almost made me laugh. The first time he sounds startled at anything, and it's at my pathetic crying form, crawling up to the base of the tree to curl up in a fetal position.

"..Are you alright?" He asked hesitantly, which was a very stupid question. It wasn't like him to ask stupid questions.

"Plums, what happened?" He insisted more firmly this time, peering intently at me from above. I gnawed at my lower lip as high, animal-like whimpers escaped my throat. Looking back up at him, vision-blurring tears slipped out of the corners of my saucer-sized eyes, and I could finally see his expression was one of alarm. "What happened?" He asked again.

I calmed down considerably. My hyperventilating sobs slowed to an occasional hiccup. I would make Permy pay for what she did.

"...Our plan is working." My wavering, sob-thickened voice choked out.

"...What the hell are you talking about?" He demanded, looking so confused and mad that I really did laugh this time. That really baffled him. He shook his head and disappeared back into the tree with an exasperated exhale.

I leaned my head back on the truck and contented myself with sniffling and observing the lights in windows of the dorm buildings turning off or on. At a squirrel swiftly making it's way across the lawn and into a tree. I wonder if Natsume climbed like a squirrel. He probably climbed like a cat. Maybe he was stuck in the tree.

"...They took the letters. I don't have anything left of my grandpa. Did you know he passed away last year?" I confessed out loud. Natsume stayed silent. He had no idea what I was talking about, of course.

"I'm going to get revenge, though." I sniffled. I heard him shift.

"..He was a great man. He took care of me. He was the only family I had that was still alive. I couldn't even make it to his funeral because I was stuck here.. am stuck. Because I am stuck.." My voice cracked and faded. I stood before I could start crying again, and started walking away.

"Hey Plums." He called and I turned. He was hugging his knees to his chest, and for the first time I could almost believe we were the same age, if it weren't for the look in his eyes.. as if he knew something that I did not. As if it wasn't the other way around.

"Good luck getting back at whoever took them away from you." He said, and I couldn't help but take note of all the vague terms he used. I swiped at my eyes.

"Thank you, Natsume." _For listening. _I didn't say. I had used his first name before, but this time, it sounded different. I could swear he almost smiled, but he turned his head away before I could tell. With that, I turned and left to my dorm, exhausted from crying, devising plans for avenging my letters and punishing Permy.

0o0o0o0o0o0

That night was the first of the strange dreams that would follow.

I was at the bottom of a river, watching my letters float away. My grandpa was at the other end, watching me. He opened his arms toward me. Only it wasn't my grandpa anymore, but Narumi. I looked up at the light filtering through the water. Some kid dropped their favorite green wedge sandals in the stream, and a cat fell in trying to get them back, but was drowning. And there was a man. A man dressed in black at the edge of the river, looking down at us all.

The first of many unsettling dreams to come.

**Finally finished it.**

**Feel free to contribute feedback. **


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